"That sounds lovely."

"It would be, wouldn't it?"

"If humans are compatible with everything I wonder if they'd be compatible with us, though I'm not sure that'd work out along other dimensions..."

"Might be different for species from entirely different stock - we at least all use the same genetic coding."

"Well, if you wanted to give a geneticist a sample it'll make their day."

"I'll consider it."

"No pressure, as far as I know they weren't even going to have anyone ask, I just thought of it on my own."

"I'm a bit hesitant around genetic stuff, but that might be a sensible thing to trade eventually - once we've established some kind of inter-species standard on what anyone could do with the information, which would require actual leadership involvement."

"Makes sense!"

"What are your questions about shoggoths, speaking of?"

Lestra has a list! She wants to know about their culinary traditions and work schedules and how they keep time and stuff like that.

Culinary traditions are actually pretty sparse, since adults stop eating usually between twenty five and two hundred fifty Amentan years, and children's needs are pretty easily met with wild-caught food.

They usually work short blocks - at most four hours a day - of actual work, unless there's some big push to get something new constructed. Their communities are small enough they mostly have task-completion compensation or more rarely salaried positions. They don't do hourly work. She'd receive her compensation after finishing preparing something worthy of being presented. Long, ongoing projects do receive support, but it's more like a research stipend. Many shoggoth communities still function on a barter system overseen by someone in a wisdom position - though a more complicated one than humans, given immortality, tight knit communities, and exceptionally good memories - but many have commodity currencies, or a blend.

They don't tend to bother tracking time on anything finer than a day to day schedule for non-scientific purposes. There's lore keepers, who also keep track of things like which year it is and the positions of the stars and planets, who people can talk to if they need a reminder of the time or season.

...how do they stop eating? Do they start being able to absorb background radiation?

What do they spend their money on?

"We can potentially have really efficient digestive systems, and it's actually a pain to keep eating because we don't have a growth cap. We can digest parts of our own bodies, and if that drops our mass noticeably eat back up to normal for a little bit."

Money (or favors) gets spent on art pieces, or performances, or having someone construct you a very nice house, or commissioning a story or research... Commodities and some products also get traded with the Deep Ones, for things like nets, jewelry, things passed on from human trade routes (often favoring precious materials not found underwater)...

So they're mostly spending on nonessentials, and don't need to worry about getting paid up front to handle necessities?

No. It helps not having many essentials, of course.

"Must simplify the economy enormously."

"Yes; humans have a dreadfully complicated economy. It also allows us to pursue more personally enjoyable projects."

"That makes sense."

She'll go through any other questions, then, though she doesn't know some of the more obscure details.

Eventually Lestra needs to beg off to go have dinner. "Thank you so much for meeting with me, this has been amazing."

"Thank you. This has helped a lot."

"I'm so glad! If you have more questions let me know any time!" And she's off.

She goes back to reading through Summary Bank articles, now with much more context, playing with Bright, getting Bright caught up on the child's Earth-relevant schooling...

And the evening news breaks the report of aliens.